Escondido settles voting rights lawsuit

City will become first in North County with election districts

ESCONDIDO  Escondido has settled a voting rights lawsuit by agreeing to become the first North County city to have City Council members represent specific geographic areas, city officials announced Wednesday.

Latinos make up 49 percent of Escondido’s population, but only two Latinos have been elected to the council in the city’s 125-year history.

Attorneys for the city and the plaintiffs are scheduled to present the settlement agreement to Vista Superior Court Judge Earl Maas at 11 a.m. Friday.

The switch to districts will make the council more responsive to the needs of Escondido’s less affluent families, the State Building and Construction Trades Council said in a statement Wednesday.

A powerful labor union coordinated the filing of the lawsuit and paid the attorney’s fees of the plaintiffs.

Some community leaders have said the switch might also end a hold that conservatives have had on the council since the 1990s.

Mayor Sam Abed and the council majority oppose switching to districts. They say districts would unnecessarily divide the city and pit council members against each other for projects.

But council members said they agreed to settle the suit because the state’s Voting Rights Act makes it nearly impossible for cities to defend themselves against charges of racially polarized voting.

The settlement calls for the city to be divided into four geographic districts, with one council member representing each area. The mayor would still be elected by the entire city.

A seven-member panel chosen by retired San Diego County judges would draw the district boundaries some time before July 2014 so they could apply to the November 2014 council elections.

The judges would have to choose the panel by Sept. 1 of this year.

Jim Finberg, the attorney for those who sued, said Wednesday that he expected the boundary panel to create a predominantly Latino district in the center of the city.

“That’s what happened when the school district created districts in Escondido, so I would think it’s likely that would also happen here,” he said. “This will help a particular part of the city get a voice.”

Finberg said the City Council would play only a limited role in drawing the boundaries. The council could either approve or reject the panel’s proposal, but couldn’t tinker with it, he said.

In addition, if council members don’t approve a set of district boundaries by July 2014, the last proposal presented to them would become binding, Finberg said.

However, he said, attorneys for both sides spent much time and effort trying to prevent the drawing of districts from forcing out current members of the council.

He said Olga Diaz and Mike Morasco, who were elected in November, would be allowed to serve out their four-year terms.

And he said efforts were made to allow Ed Gallo and John Masson, whose council terms expire in 2014, to run for re-election even if they end up living in the same district as each other, Diaz or Morasco.